Tech Won't Save Us

Paris Marx is joined by tante to discuss why it’s hard for Europe to challenge the US and China on tech and why we should change how we think about innovation.

tante is a writer, speaker, and Luddite working on tech and its social impact.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• tante spoke about innovation at re:publica 2024.
• Paris also gave a presentation on data centers.
• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron wrote an op-ed about shared priorities in the Financial Times.
• Sam Altman successfully lobbied to water down the EU’s AI Act.

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Paris Marx is joined by Nitasha Tiku to discuss how US tech companies are flocking to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to fund their expensive AI ambitions.

Nitasha Tiku is a tech culture reporter at the Washington Post.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Read the pieces Nitasha contributed to on Silicon Valley getting funding from Saudia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and its embrace of the US military.
• Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018. There’s still be no accountability.
• Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman met with many Silicon Valley CEOs months before Khashoggi’s murder.
• The United Arab Emirates launched its own AI strategy in 2018.
• The UAE also put Pegasus spyware on the phone of Khashoggi’s wife months before his murder.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was photographed signing a woman’s chest on June 4.
• Many Arab Americans in Silicon Valley have reported being scared to speak out in support of Palestinians for fear of retaliation.

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Paris Marx is joined by Joseph Cox to discuss how the FBI created an encrypted phone company called Anom to read criminals’ messages and eventually carry out the largest international sting operation by law enforcement.

Joseph Cox is the author of Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever and the host of the 404 Media Podcast.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Read an excerpt of Dark Wire at Wired.
• Joseph wrote about the revelation that Lithuania hosted the Anom interception server and provided the intercepted messages to the FBI.

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Paris Marx is joined by Nora Kenworthy to discuss how people rely on GoFundMe to access healthcare and the further inequities that adds to an already deeply unequal healthcare system. 

Nora Kenworthy is the author of Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare and an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Washington Bothell.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Nora is doing an online event with the Debt Collective on June 13.
• GoFundMe bought many of its competitors through the 2010s.
• In 2020, GoFundMe posted in a campaign it set up in response to Covid: “We’re in a growth industry: pain.”

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Paris Marx is joined by Gil Duran to discuss Balaji Srinivasan’s plan to implement “tech Zionism” in San Francisco and the threat posed by Silicon Valley's growing opposition to democracy.

Gil Duran is an independent journalist and former editorial page editor for the Sacramento Bee.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry. 

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Gil has written about Balaji’s Network State, Garry Tan of Y Combinator, and the plan to build a tech city in Northern California.
• Paris wrote about Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto.
• Peter Thiel no longer feels “freedom and democracy are compatible.”
• Elon Musk claimed he sent ventilators to hospitals. They received biPAP and CPAP machines.
• Gil mentioned Quinn Slobodian’s “Crack Up Capitalism.”

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Paris Marx is joined by Paolo Gerbaudo to discuss how Chinese electric car maker BYD operates, its growing international success against Tesla, and whether it will be able to move into the North American market.

Paolo Gerbaudo is the author of The Digital Party and The Great Recoil. He’s a senior research fellow at the Department of Political History, Theories and Geography of Complutense University in Madrid.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Paolo analyzed the business model of BYD in Phenomenal World.
• The New York Times wrote an in-depth piece on BYD back in February.
• Foreign Affairs published an article on the success of the Chinese tech industry in the face of US dominance.
• After recording, the United States announced a 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles.
• In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan put quotas on Japanese car imports, making them more expensive to US consumers to help domestic automakers like GM and Ford.
• BYD is increasingly challenging on Tesla’s position as top seller of electric vehicles.

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Paris Marx is joined by Ed Niedermeyer to discuss Tesla's stagnation as an electric vehicle manufacturer and what that could mean for its future as competitors cut into their market share.

Ed Niedermeyer is the author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors and co-host of the Autonocast.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Paris wrote about the problems facing Tesla, written before Musk began the mass layoffs.
• Ed wrote at the end of last year about the lies that underpinned Tesla’s story being exposed.
• The Cybertruck is facing significant manufacturing issues in Austin, and recently they all had to be recalled for issues with the accelerator pedal, which caused the company to reveal that only 3,878 vehicles had been delivered to customers.
• Tesla is laying off a large number of staff, including the Supercharger and new vehicle teams.
• Elon Musk is doing mass layoffs to reestablish his power over the company, but it’s destabilizing the actual business.
• Reuters reported that Musk cancelled plans for a low-cost car in favor of robotaxis.
• Automakers were warning they couldn’t phase out Chinese minerals from the battery supply chain by 2025. After recording, the Biden administration announced some rules would be delayed until 2027.
• BYD has been looking to build a factory in Mexico.

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Paris Marx is joined by Nicole Lipman to discuss SHEIN’s rise to the top of the fast fashion industry and how it exacerbates the sector’s labor and environment problems.

Nicole Lipman is a writer and assistant editor at n+1.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Nicole did a deep dive into SHEIN and how it operates for n+1.
• Paris wrote about the Shut Down Shein campaign.
• Amazon benefits immensely from the US de minimis rule.
• Ten years after the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh, many problems remain. 

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Paris Marx is joined by Meghan O’Gieblyn to discuss parallels between transhumanism and Christian narratives of resurrection, despite the fact many transhumanists identify as staunch atheists.

Meghan O’Gieblyn is an advice columnist at Wired and the author of God, Human, Animal, Machine.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Meghan wrote about transhumanism and religion for n+1.
• Paris wrote about the religion of techno-optimism in Disconnect.
• Amy Kurzweil wrote about her father’s chatbot of his own father.
• In China, AI “deathbots” are being used to help people grieve.
• Richard Dawkins now identifies as a “cultural Christian” (not Catholic, as Paris mistakenly said in the episode).

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Paris Marx is joined by Alex Shephard to discuss the legalization of sports betting in the United States, the growing influence of gambling in professional sports, and its negative impact on the lives of sports fans.

Alex Shephard is a senior editor at The New Republic.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Alex wrote about sports gambling for The New Republic.
• The Wall Street Journal recent explored the wider backlash to sports betting in light of the Shohei Ohtani scandal.
• Last year, the New York Times gutted its unionized sports section to replace it with non-union writers at The Athletic.
• Psychologist Meredith K. Ginley explained how sports betting apps hook people on regular gambling.

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